Control processes for motor vehicles according to the present state of the art are frequently carried out with the participation of what are referred to as driver assistance systems (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, ADAS). These are devices which assist the driver of a motor vehicle in certain driving situations. Examples of such driver assistance systems are an adaptive cruise control (ACC) system, an anti-lock brake system (ABS), an electronic stability program (ESP), an adaptive headlight assistant (automatic adaptation of the beam width of the dipped headlight and adjustment of the headlight between full beam and dipped beam), a braking assistant (BRS), a hill starting assistant, a cruise control system, an inter-vehicle distance warning system, a blind spot monitoring system, a traffic jam assistant, a lane detection system, a lane change assistant, a driver state detection system, a collision warning and protection system (Collision Mitigation (Brake) System, CM(B)S) or a traffic sign recognition system.
Assistance is provided to the driver by a driver assistance system usually on the basis of safety considerations or in order to increase the driving comfort. Driver assistance systems usually intervene autonomously in the drive, steering system and/or signaling devices of the vehicle.
Nowadays, the intervention by a driver assistance system in the drive, steering system and/or signaling devices can typically be overridden by the driver clearly perceptively counteracting the intervention by the ADAS. In this context, “overriding” is understood to be an action which prevents or at least changes the intervention by the driver assistance system. The possibility of overriding is provided for legal reasons since the driver must be able to assume responsibility for the steering of his motor vehicle at any time. In addition, some systems do not yet operate so reliably. This concerns, in particular, the detection of the surroundings in all possible driving states and all possible weather conditions. In addition, the acceptance of systems which do not take away control from the driver is greater.
However, the possibilities of overriding a driver assistance system are currently limited or difficult to differentiate from actions by the driver which are not intended to bring about overriding of a driver assistance system.
When a collision warning and protection system is working, for example significant acceleration after a warning has been issued would be interpreted as overriding of the system. The intervention by the system would be interrupted in the controller. The acceleration by the driver could, however, also have taken place due to the driver being startled, and therefore in this case the overriding of the system would have taken place unintentionally.
In addition, given the increasing number of driver assistance systems on board a motor vehicle there is the risk of actions by the driver being incorrectly interpreted in relation to a driver assistance system or being assigned to the wrong driver assistance system. This can also lead to undesired overriding of the system.
A further disadvantage of known overriding possibilities for driver assistance systems is that the overriding cannot be differentiated. There is frequently only the possibility of switching off the intervention by the system. The degree of the intervention can, for example, not be reduced by current overriding variants.